Heading Out

We are heading back to Newton tomorrow. Joshua is in a musical called, "Honk."

It is based on Hans Christian Anderson's story of "The Ugly Duckling." Josh is playing "Ugly." I can't wait to see it. In fact, we're going to stick around and see it twice!!

I'll be back online on Monday. You all have a great weekend!!

Guess what I've been busy doing this week????

Hmmmmm........

Entering to win hundreds of prizes.....

Thanks so Much!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has left such kind comments and offered so much support to Amy. She has received such an outpouring of encouragement and love!

She is doing so much better today and seems to be ready to move forward on a new path and anxious to see what God has in store for her.

Joy Comes In The Morning

I was thinking of my oldest daughter, Amy, this morning. She's going through a period of grief. All the hopes and dreams and plans she had for her future have dramatically changed and she's mourning the loss. I can't help but think of a passage of Scripture from Psalm 30, verse 5. "...weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning." A good friend said to me yesterday, "Little children - little problems. Big children - big problems. Little children - little hurts. Big children - big hurts." She's hurting and I can't kiss away this pain like I could a scraped knee. All I can do is to continue to be there for her, to let her know that she is loved, to keep pointing her to Christ, and to let her know that because of the hope we have in Christ, joy WILL come!

A Very LONG Night

Tuesday night I got a splinter in my foot. I picked at it a little and thought it must have been a small one and that I got it out. I was fine....until last night!

I went to bed with my foot throbbing. I knew it was that splinter. I used a flashlight to try to see it but couldn't really see anything. I figured that once I fell asleep it would stop hurting. I was very wrong. 45 minutes later I woke up and my foot was really throbbing now!! It was now 3:30 AM. I had no choice but to prepare for "surgery." I got a bowl and filled it with hot salt water and began soaking my foot. Then armed with my surgical instruments, I began working on that splinter. After more soaking and using a needle, I finally got it out! It felt so good!! As far as splinters go, it was kind of large but in the grand scheme of things, I find it so hard to believe that such a small little splinter can affect an entire body!! By this time, it was almost 5:00 AM and I now had a huge headache from serious lack of sleep. I finally fell asleep around 6:00. When I woke up a couple hours later, it was with a pain free foot!!

Bloggy Carnival

FYI: The Bloggy Giveaway Carnival is almost here!! July 28 - August 1.

Last time there were well over 1000 drawings which means well over 1000 prizes to be won!!

To my sheer delight, I won several prizes...to see them, go here.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things...

You spend months planning a weekend....barely 3 short days!! Once it arrives, you try to squeeze every ounce of time out of those days and before you know it, it's over. I tried to hold my little 5-month old nephew as much as I could, knowing the next time I saw him, he'd be so much bigger and have absolutely no idea who I am. I know that we're all right where God wants each of us to be but some times it's really hard. For that short weekend, I loved being part of a bigger family...it was so cool to run into my brother and sister-in-law in Wal-mart. It was awesome to all be in the same church at the same time. Knowing we're all where we're supposed to be gives me peace in the midst of a little sadness when we said our goodbyes.

Sunday night, Cliff & I took Josh back to school. We spent the night and drove back yesterday morning. Last evening I had an appointment. This morning, I had a meeting at work. I came home this afternoon, did a couple loads of wash and picked up a little and decided that was all I needed to do. I put on my PJ's and took it easy the rest of the day.

Tomorrow I'll get back into the swing of things!!

FYI

My daughter is trying her hand at blogging. Her new blog can be found here.

Family Reunion

My sister & her family are here from GA. My brother & his family arrive tomorrow from FL. The last time we were together was 12 years and 5 babies ago. We're celebrating my mom's 65th birthday & my parent's 44th wedding anniversary. I'll be back on Monday.

Have a great weekend!!

Power Scrubbing

No, this isn't me but it is almost a picture of what I've been like this week! A couple of headache-free weeks have resulted in a burst of energy that I have channeled into cleaning my house. I have scrubbed, dusted, swept, purged, tossed, washed, mopped, and purged some more! I've been on a roll with getting rid of stuff. The more I throw away, the more I want to get rid of. It's been so liberating! I am sore. I have used muscles that I haven't used for a long time and they are crying out tonight. But I am relaxing on a freshly made bed with fresh sheets and feeling not one ounce of guilt over chores that need to be done. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

Super Mom??

A conversation I overheard this afternoon between my 12 year old daughter and 15 year old son:

Daughter: Mom is more important than Amy (older sister)

(at this point I was tempted to stop the conversation and address the issue that all people are important but I realize what my daughter meant!)

Son: No she's not

Daughter: Well, what would you do without mom?

Son: I'd die!!

Mom: (to myself) Deep sigh...it's nice to be acknowledged!

I have been deep cleaning and decluttering my house for more than a week now. I'm washing curtians, cleaning walls, the works!! And I'm tired!! But the house is looking great! Just a little more to go and the outside and then I'm getting on a cleaning routine so I don't fall so far behind again!

Show & Tell Friday

We bought our house 5 years ago. It was built in 1910 and had so much character and potential. We knew the house would need alot of work but we realized that we didn't have to try to do it overnight or even in the first year. We bought the house intending to be here for a very long time. Since our house is so old, the walls are lathe and plaster rather than sheet rock. Can I even begin to tell you about cracking plaster? Plus, over the years, there's been some settling so needless to say our walls have lots of cracks (character!). My guess is that the sellers, in their attempt to hide all the cracks, wallpapered every single wall in this house. Now, I don't mind wallpaper if it's tasteful and in moderate amounts but the wallpaper in my bedroom was yellow strips with very large purple flowers all over it. It was so busy I could hardly sleep! It was quite a process taking that wallpaper down, dealing with countless cracks and finally ending up with a very calming green. The next project on my list was the bathroom. I wanted it to remind me of the beach (a place I find very relaxing) plus it coordinated very well with my bedroom colors. The picture on top is the "BEFORE." Notice the very, very busy wallpaper!! We finally finished up in there last week. Below you'll find the "AFTERS." I just love my new bathroom!!

Thanks for visiting my show & tell today. If you'd like to read some more, go visit Kelli over at No Place Like Home.

Yesterday as I worshiped with my church family, I couldn't help but thank God for the gift that is my church. Finding a community that has a family atmosphere, loves and cares for one another, and supports those in need, it is a true gift of grace. I am both humbled and blessed by my church family.

4th of July Basketball

We spent the Fourth with some friends & my parents. We had a nice picnic dinner and then a heated game of H.O.R.S.E., followed by water volleyball. The town fireworks display was just a couple streets over and could be seen from our

friend's front porch. It was a beautiful day with extremely mild temperatures.

These are my very young-looking parents!

My Country Tis of Thee

From the Book: Amazing Grace: 365 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions

Moved deeply by the desire to create a national hymn that would allow the American people to offer praise to God for our wonderful land, a twenty-four-year-old theological student, Samuel Francis Smith, penned these lines on a scrap of paper in less than thirty minutes in 1832. Yet even today many consider "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" their favorite patriotic hymn and call it our "unofficial national anthem."

The easily singable words of the song are matched with a popular international melody used by many nations, including England, where it accompanies "God Save the King/Queen." The emotionally powerful ideas that Smith expressed had an immediate response. The hymn soon became a national favorite. The stirring tributes to our fatherland in the first three stanzas lead to a worshipful climax of gratefulness to God and a prayer for His continued guidance.

Following his graduation from Harvard and the Andover Theological Seminary, Samuel Smith became an outstanding minister in several Baptist churches in the East. He composed one hundred fifty hymns during his eighty-seven years and helped compile the leading Baptist hymnal of his day. He was also editor of a missionary magazine through which he exerted a strong influence in promoting the cause of missions. Later he became the secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union and spent considerable time visiting various foreign fields. Samuel Smith was truly a distinctive representative of both his country and his God.

My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing:

Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride,

From ev'ry mountain side let freedom ring!

My native country, thee, land of the noble free, thy name I love:

I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills;

My heart with rapture thrills like that above.

Let music swell the breeze, and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song:

Let mortal tongues awake, let all that breathe partake;

Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to Thee, author of liberty, to Thee we sing:

Long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light;

Protect us by Thy might, great God, our King!

Have A Happy Fourth!!

God's Amazing Grace

One of the things I like most about a NASCAR race is that no matter how much a team may strategize about how they are going to run a race, very often, they are hit with an unexpected curve ball that can chage the entire trajectory of their race. For example, last week, the #88 car was running up near the front. Upon entering the pits, he was hit, thus ending his chances to win the race. The other driver never even saw him. Many times it is like that in life.

When we graduate high school, we think we have to have our entire life mapped out. I was going to be an accountant when I started my senior year. By the time I graduated, I had met Cliff but I was still going to college. When college started that August, guess who wasn't there? Me! I chose to get married the follwing November. That was God's course for my life. And the life I live today is not the life I thought I'd be living back in the day when I was young, idealistic, and had little to no life experience.

The trajectory of Amy's life has changed in just a matter of weeks. But unlike the #88 car, this isn't going to end her race...it's just the beginning! She's experienced deep hurt in that place that you only know exists when you open yourself up to love and get hurt by it. I'm so proud of her. She is exhibiting strength and wisdom and looking to God for peace and answers. I don't know if God has given her answers yet, but I do know that she is experiencing her first taste of God's amazing grace and she's found it to be sweet and pleasant. As her mom, I'd love to shield her from hurt but I cannot. How else would she be able to find and see God without it? These are hard, tough times but they are precious times. Years from now, she will look back on these days where she first saw God's grace that is "sufficient to meet all our needs."